C&C Labs News Wire

— Wednesday, June 30, 2004 —

Well, we've been trying to do better about releases, so Today we've got a closer up screenshot of the Air Command Center for you. Complete with Raptors I might add. No, we didn't make the Raptors. We just used them to show you all that CommieDog already has this model coded and near ready for use. All we need now is a harrier to place on the model, which is in the works as we speak. Well, we're not speaking, so I guess it's in the works as you read. Anyway, be sure to head to the Screenshots page to check it out along with any other screenshots you may happen to have missed. I'm not going to put up a thumbnail today because I'm just too plain lazy. It's not too hard to just click on the link and scroll to the bottom. Enjoy everyone! More is to come.

Last edited by aConcernedCitizen17 on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 at 11:42:23 PM.

— Tuesday, June 29, 2004 —

I was searching around the net and couldn't find a good tutorial to follow about skinning 3D models in Gmax/RenX so I made one for you all. With this I try to fix the problem that many mod teams are having right now. The problem is the search for a skinner. I picked up the trade by lots of work, but now you don't have to, just follow the simple flash tutorial. We've added it to the tutorials section. Don't worry, I'll get crackin' on a new graphical Tutorials page. That one looks pretty sad. So without further rambling, here's the link to Luckie's Skinning Tutorial!!!

— Tuesday, June 29, 2004 —

Our in-house Lion is at it again, releasing the latest version of his Advanced AI Mod for Zero Hour! Version 0.61 beta has now been released to the public.

From here on versions will be released in smaller increments such that by version 1.0 all of the Generals have been modified.

This latest version features a teaser of sorts for what's to come in terms of unit AI in the next few versions. The version features a new system for aircraft intelligence, especially for Aurora bombers. The tactics used are very effective and the bombers take care not to be shot down unless they are headed for a high-priority target. The Airforce General and the Superweapons General are the main benefiters from this improved strategy. The MiGs have not yet been modifed to utilise these improved tactics.

A few bugs were also fixed in this version, including issues with slow base building and a bug where the Super Weapon General wouldn't save up enough money to rebuild. (Thanks beta testers!)

To test out this mod's improved AI, why not give a match versus the new and improved Airforce General a whirl? And if you find any bugs or poorly functioning AI, be sure to point it out in the Advanced AI Mod Forums.

Ready to download the lastest version? As always, version 0.61 of the Advanced AI Mod can be downloaded here.

— Saturday, June 26, 2004 —

It has been known that Frank Klepacki, former composer for Westwood, has been working with Petroglyph Games - the Las Vegas, Nevada gaming company startup comprised of several former Westwood employees - for quite some time now. He has just recently announced, however, that since June first he has been Petroglyph's official Audio Director! As seen on Frank's website:

Frank will be exclusively providing sound effects and music for the team on their top secret project, which some of you had already speculated Frank has been working on since last year before joining full time! Here's to new beginnings!

Incase you're interested, Petroglyph has a company photo posted on their website. Frank is second from the left.

Petroglyph has also just completed the move into their new building, "just a block over from the old Westwood buidling." According to their website, the new building features:

No cubicles

Lots of Snapple

New Ping-Pong table

Killer Top-Secret Project!

Sombrero-wearing intern

Sounds like the guys over at Petroglyph will be having a lot of fun! Be sure to pay their website a visit for more info!

Last edited by Mike on Sunday, June 27, 2004 at 1:12:13 AM.

— Saturday, June 26, 2004 —

I know it's been nearly a week since we've released anything from All-Stars. However, quite contrary to our lack of releases, we've been making alot of progress. We're nearly reaching 50% of modelling done and nearly 20% overall done. We've recently released several screens on this front page but I forgot to add them to the All-Stars screenshots page. I've added them and also added a new screenshot for you all. Here's a thumbnail.

It's the Prism Tank in-game, and it's firing at some helpless infantry. As you can see in the screen, we're tweaking the ability of the prism beam to actually refract from the target to another nearby target. Just like the original unit could in RA2! Be sure to check it out at the screenshots page. Enjoy all the screens and there will be more to come as we're making even more strides than before thanks to our new modeller, Slick_mk1! He's new but he's already doing a ton for the team and for All-Stars. Keep checking back often!

— Tuesday, June 22, 2004 —

I held off posting this for a few days so that we could get some things sorted out... so now here we go. A few days ago PlanetCNC posted a now famous picture on their website. It was a photo of a big plasma TV, featuring some interesting but hard to discern events taking place in the background with the EA Games logo and the text "Command and Conquer 3" in the foreground. There's a very long, interesting comments thread posted on Planet CNC here talking about the photo. Unfortunately, PlanetCNC has been asked by EA to remove the picture, and naturally they have complied. There's still some copies floating around different community websites - if you look hard enough I'm sure you'll find one.

So what we do know now is that the picture is legitimate. It is indeed concept art that was posted (accidentally I believe) on an internal rotation of images on the plasma TV at EA. The photo was taken during the recent Battle for Middle Earth community day. Adam Isgreen, Game Design Director at the EALA studio posted this message at PlanetCNC:

Guys, Petroglyph doesn't have the rights to C&C. EA owns the C&C brand. The Petro guys are doing their own stuff.

What Mark said is true. What you saw was a concept / inspirational piece of art that we did over a year ago that displays on our internal EA monitors here at EALA. Concept art is our "What if?" avenue to explore things we may or may not want to do in the future with game content, a certain look, or atmosphere / tone.

FYI, it's an image of a Scrin Primal defending against a GDI attack on a Scrin base. Obviously, the primal is winning. =)

And yes, there are still a bunch of us ex-westwood guys here.

That comment sheds light on a number of things, most obvious of which is that Petroglyph isn't making a CNC (contrary to some recent popular rumors). It also proves that the photo is obviously real, and that at one point EA was considering creating another Command & Conquer game (perhaps a Tiberian Twilight, if you will). It also lends further proof to the existance of the Scrin, and the inclusion there of in future CNC titles. It does NOT, however, provethat EA is currently working on a new CNC.

Rumor has it, though, that a new CNC has indeed been in the works at EA for quite a while now. It has supposedly been on the back burner, however. Chris Rubyor ("Delphi" - former C&C Community Manager for Westwood Studios) has previously hinted that there is in actuality a future for the Command and Conquer series. So thus the likelyhood of another CNC is high -- but afterall, only time will tell - and it could be a while.

— Friday, June 18, 2004 —

The long-awaited newest version of the Advanced AI Mod for Zero Hour has arrived! Version 0.6 (beta) of the Advanced AI Mod for Zero Hour has just been released! Lion, the mod's author, has been hard at work largely rewriting much of the AI scripting himself. In this version, several bugs, as well as a few major ones, have been fixed. In particular, before the AI would not build a base if the starting money for a game was greater than 10,000 - now it will.

The Airforce General has also been greatly improved, along with a number of other fixes to other Generals. For more detailed information on what's new in this latest version, please visit the Advanced AI Mod page.

Remember, this mod only affects the Hard computer players in Zero Hour (not the Easy and Medium difficulty levels).

On behalf of the rest of the Generals World staff team, I'd like to thank Lion for his continued work on this mod. I'd also like to thank the members of the beta testing team, without whom many bugs would have gone unnoticed. If you find a bug in the mod or would like to be part of the beta testing team, please visit the Advanced AI Mod Forum.

Blitzkrieg 2 is planning some fixes in the patch for v035. They are also offering help to those who are having troubles with their language not being supported.

The Energy Mod is showing some great progress in their plans. Check it out.

Community:

Uni of CNC Unleashed has posted this week's news roundup. Definitely worth checking out for all of the latest CNC community news.

Lion of CNCDEN has released a reworked version of the first Generals map he ever made - entitled Lion Country - for Zero Hour. CNCDEN also has four new fan-submitted Zero Hour maps, so be sure to pay them a visit!

Time for my rant about something. I always sort of give one when I do a round up.
Turned on your TV today? Turned onto TechTV? Oh! No! It's gone! What's this G4TechTV, you ask???
It's a sad excuse for channel, that's what. I beleive they have a show called: Players. The show should be called "Pretenders". The shows that replaced the witty, entertaining, and downright fun to watch techtv programming are mindless, sad excuses of programming. Take the video game review show for example, do the're actual "ratings" seem to reflect what they think? Not at all. They're ratings are downright random. Half the time, they play very little of the game and just unlock the rest. Heh, they even dropped "Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow" for being too linear.
Where did computer help go? To the unemployment line. See, incase you don't know... *deep breathe* Paul Allen owned techtv until he sold it like a car with a bad transmission and Comcast bought it up to merge it with G4 (THE GAMERS TV CHANNEL!!! Or maybe just 13 year olds with no brains) because they thought the broad audienced Techtv which had a wider following would match well with their small and mindless channel which has an audience that can be described by any combination of the following:

12 to 13 years old males

Sports acne

Licks frozen metal pipes for fun

Wears ALF t-shirts and low cut shorts

Owns a PS2 because it has the most games

Buys a game because the box "looks awesome"

Buys games because it was cheap at Walmart and he's a fan of the cartoon

Tell me, where do all the TechTv fans go? Well, not to NYC or New Jersey. After all, they don't even get G4TechTV because there is no agreement to broadcast in that area. How poor is that? The place most fans have been going is the the phones and the internet to drive up some support. Click Here to read the article that has a couple ideas on what to do if you're pissed, too.
Maybe I'm going hard on G4, but I don't think so. They're programming bites. If you meet a single one of the requirement above and disagree with be, don't even bother emailing me. I know what you will say. The fact is, Comcast did a boneheaded thing. Now the g33ks have to crawl back under their rocks. And apologies for the longness from me.
Anyways, have a nice day!

— Wednesday, June 16, 2004 —

My computer is back up and running again, so now here's some important news!

CNCDEN is the online host for the Zero Hour portion of the EverLAN gaming tournament. The LAN tournament is being held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is housed in a 500 seat "bring your own computer" complex. You can register right away for the tournament here. The event comes complete with prizes, so if you're in the area you should undoubtedly look into attending!

This C&C Generals: Zero Hour tournament will feature the greatest players from around the nation battling head-to-head for remarkable prizes. Anyone and everyone who wants a chance at winning the astounding prizes offered can sign-up and join in on the action! More detailed information for the EverLAN Summer 2004 event can be found HERE. Online registration will open for the event in early June, and seats will go quickly!!

— Tuesday, June 15, 2004 —

I decided to take the incentive and launch this week's poll myself seeing as I had an idea for one. This week's poll question is: Tank Battle Royal - Who wins? And the choices are the Apocalypse tank and the Overlord. Cast your vote on the right!

Here are the results of last week's poll:

Is it time for GW to have a layout change?

Yes

13

No

9

Layout? Who cares? All I do is go to the forums!

4

Total Votes: 26

Keep in mind that we do watch the results of these polls carefully as signs for what we should do.

In other news, it appears our server had some sort of a hiccup, as all of yesterday's newsposts, including CommieDog's "|-|4x0R" post, heh, were unfortunately lost. For those who didn't read it, the jist of it was that CommieDog now has newsposting access here at Generals World to post new CnC All Stars screenshots. Most of the posts in the forums seem to have survived the server bug though.

I'd also like to apologize for the lack of updates on my part the past week or so. My primary computer was (and still is) offline so I am unable to adequately update the site or check my email. I'm working to get it back online as soon as possible. It won't be up and running again until Friday at the earliest, however.

Last edited by Mike on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at 11:03:40 AM.

— Sunday, June 13, 2004 —

Yes, yes, I know. It's been forever since we've released some screens. Not to say we are not hard at work, though; we've modelled and skinned alot of units, so be ready for an onslaught of screens in the coming weeks.

Anyway, these two are the first of our "action" screens. One note on the screen with the Prism Tank: the actual prism beam will look different in game (and we have already animated it) but we don't have a screen of it in action yet so this will have to do for now.

Also, I'd like to say "thanks" to CommieDog, Warnwar2003 and aConcernedCitizen for their INI, skinning, and modeling help, respectively.